PPK, I need your help! I am always in so much pain doing yoga and other exercises on the floor due to my bony asparagus/hips. I'm thinking about buying a proper yoga mat (I've been using a shag-esque carpet), but will that help? The thickest ones I can find at the moment are 1.5cm thick. Do you think this is enough, or will I have to macgyver a pillow support system?

I miss yoga class, but I'm having a hard time fitting it into my budget. Do any of you have a favorite video/series?

My yoga class was canceled last night so I did the Shiva Rea Yoga Shakti (lunar flow or night time yoga - 50-60 minutes) before bed last night and I feel so calm and positive this morning. I do like that DVD but I find 90 minutes (two different sets of daytime practices) too long but she does have one 30 minute daytime practice. Also, you can pick and choose postures on her DVD which is probably a good thing and I imagine some really like it, but I tend to be wary of doing this, especially for beginners to achieve a balanced yoga practice on their own this way. I mean, I've been doing it for 15 years and I still like a more experienced person to dictate a balanced practice/sequence of postures rather than leaving it up to me. But yeah, I do like her set workouts.

I also like Baron Baptiste (Ashtanga), Rodney Yee (he's kind of hatha to me, which is a general practice, with a smattering of all the yogic influences together. I think hatha is great especially for starting out. It's how I started), Nicky Doane (Ashtanga), Eoin Finn's "Yoga for Happiness" has set lengths of all kinds so there's really no excuse for missing your practice - from 20 to a full 90 minutes - he's ashtanga style which is a rather physical and challenging yoga as you may already know - Kundalini practices (Nirvair Singh Khalsa - him especially = my fave and also, Gurmukh, Ravi Singh and Carol Carlsson all come to mind for good kundalini practices). Some others will surely have some excellent recommendations and I'm probably forgetting some. I have a lot of yoga DVDs.

I got a yearly membership to My Yoga Online when it was on crazy sale ($5/month) recently and I LOVE it. Just love. I practice every morning and almost every night.Eoin Finn's "Yoga for Happiness" is my fave; I usually do the "quickie" half-hour routine in the morning. It's a little touchy-feely and weird -- everyone in the video gets up to snuggle with the teacher after practice, like a big hug orgy -- but it's an intense workout and I feel great afterward. I've also done Yoga Nidra a couple of times and it's amazing. Really helps with my anxiety.

Shiva Rea has some excellent Dvd's. I particularly like Daily Energy. But Fluid Power & Trance Dance are also good. There is a great feature which enables you to be able to create your own practice from different sections of the dvd. You can do anything from a 5 minute meditation to a 20 minute flow & you can keep adding to them to increase the length of the practice depending on how much time/energy you have. There are also some pre-set programmes to follow too. I think they are really worth trying out.

I start up my weekly kundalini 90 minute classes in late September, calcy. I've been neglecting my practice and I know it'll be rough at first but it'll also be worth it even thought there are parts that won't be at all fun while I'm doing it. It's all about the afterwards.

a little while ago, i realized that i feel like i've been crying all day. that was really a rough class for me, emotionally and physically. it doesn't help that my life is starting to get really hectic and complicated.

anyway, onward and upward.

my bff used to crow about kundalini; she loved it. one of these days, i'm gonna seriously explore all the options out there...

I just went to my first yoga class yesterday and it was amazing! I am hooked. I've done at home dvd's before, but they are nothing like what the class was. It was gentle vinyasa class and the instructor was great at soothing and giving direction. I felt totally comfortable and at ease through the whole thing. Can't wait to go back!

We did this meditation thing at the end with heated eye pillows. Anyone know what the proper term for it might be? She was spouting off the real names for everything so fast I couldn't figure out what it was called. But it was wonderful.

i just started going to bikram yoga classes and got really sick (dehydration, vomiting, etc) after each of the first three classes i went to. i'm hoping that this week will be better. we'll see how it goes!

_________________i will resist with every inch and every breath i will resist this psychic death

i just started going to bikram yoga classes and got really sick (dehydration, vomiting, etc) after each of the first three classes i went to. i'm hoping that this week will be better. we'll see how it goes!

That's not good. Make sure to be really hydrated and don't push yourself when you are starting out. I used to err on the side of drinking too much water during the day, that I often had to leave class to pee once I hit the spine strengthening series and was laying on my stomach. When I first started I would only do one set of each of the standing postures and sit down to watch the other set. Now that I've been going for so long the heat doesn't affect me nearly as often as it did at the beginning. Although I still have the off class where I feel like I'm going to die.

i used to do kriya but i've been doing kripalu (yoga groupons are the best!) and i'm doing hatha (groupon!) next but then i'll probably go back to my kripalu lady because i think i love her. i still miss my kriya guy but i'm too far away now. sad.

_________________"T-shirts are not allowed in heaven, Karyn. They don't do casual Fridays." - Amandabear

yeah, mollytea, it's best not to push yourself so hard at yoga that you're feeling ill. Any bad feelings are usually a sign you've gone too far into the postures before being ready, so ease back and realize that it takes work and practice sometimes to get into a full posture. I always use my breath as my guide for knowing how far to go because once you lose the smooth flow of your breath in a posture and your breath becomes ragged or it's difficult to breathe, that's a sign you've gone too far, so ease back to the point where you can still maintain a smooth breath and then play with your edge from there--you're smooth breathing is a good guide that anyone can use while practicing to stay in your zone.

One of my exes from years ago used to tease me about my "kamikaze yoga" practice because I'd definitely push myself too hard and looked at it as a physical exercise as opposed to a meditation--and while yoga is a physical exercise and can be a very demanding one, I've tried to look at more as a meditation these days because that's better for me and better for my body and mind and I see true progress through being patient with myself rather than pretzeling myself into positions my body isn't ready for.

I just went to my first yoga class yesterday and it was amazing! I am hooked. I've done at home dvd's before, but they are nothing like what the class was. It was gentle vinyasa class and the instructor was great at soothing and giving direction. I felt totally comfortable and at ease through the whole thing. Can't wait to go back!

We did this meditation thing at the end with heated eye pillows. Anyone know what the proper term for it might be? She was spouting off the real names for everything so fast I couldn't figure out what it was called. But it was wonderful.

GraciaKai - i think you are referring to savasana, it's also called "corpse pose".

i'm so glad you loved your yoga class! isn't it the best?! i'm just getting into ashtanga yoga these days, it's a change up from my usual vinyasa and hatha classes, but i love it, too!

i love yoga. i have been going to this place in my neighborhood that seems to have a lot of dancers... or maybe they are gymnasts. they do crazy, beautiful moves involving basically floating from plank to standing with no jumping involved. i's a little intimidating so i am feeling slightly less motivated to go there.thinking about starting bikrim for faster results.

So there are these free yoga classes in the town square section of the Shops at Don Mills (for anyone who lives in this 'hood, they are held every Tuesday and Thursday, 7-8:00 p.m. (here's the Events page link in case you're interested: http://www.shopsatdonmills.ca/en/custom ... vents.aspx ) This is at Don Mills and Lawrence Ave in Toronto. So anyway, I go to this class which is free and weather permitting it's held outdoors and because the instructor was awesome, it was an AMAZING class. The instructor gave wonderful instruction with excellent cues and saying the right things at the right times--I've been practicing for 15 years and my sister a few years now and we both learned stuff from this guy. The routine was challenging but also gentle with thorough instruction for alignment and modification and something for all levels of practice. He emphasizes the spiritual aspect of yoga and that it's not just a workout. I felt so relaxed and positive the next day. This is run through the Titika store btw. Anyhoo, the guy who was instructor is opening up a studio at the Shops in December but he runs the free class at the town square every second Tuesday through the summer. Anyway, I highly recommend going to the free sessions when this guy is on because it was a great class and once his studio opens in December, I'll definitely pay him for lessons. I actually felt kind of like a thief when I left because it was free--you know, I pay for classes all the time that weren't as beneficial as that one. My sister and I plan to go to all of his sessions through the summer. Anyway, if you live around here and are interested in trying some yoga, give it a shot!

I'm on day 2 of a 21 day yoga challenge to help the time pass while my guy is away at an artist residency! The challenge means, to fit my schedule I'm going to have to mix up my classes and take some restoratives and advanced classes that I would normally shy away from. I want to be able to kick up to headstand by the end of the three weeks, but my only expectation is to actually make it to practice every day. I'm excited! Woo! Yoga :)

so awesome, indexandicon! while i don't practice yoga every day, i do practice 6 days a week (ashtanga, mysore style) - and i love it so much. getting out of your comfort zone is an awesome thing; that's how i started ashtanga - i thought, "i am too ___ and ____, i'm not ___ and ____enough to do this." but i nutted up, tried it anyways and i cannot get enough. i think it rocks the most socks you've taken on the challenge!

keep us posted on how it's going and hoooooooooray for all the awesome yoga!

Thanks happy :) So far, so good! My obliques are KILLING me, but I feel like going everyday is leading to some really major breakthroughs via repetition and I feel immediately stronger. Yesterday I wound up having a semi-private class because only one other person showed up, and it was a pretty profound experience.